By Rebecca Goodman
Enquirer staff writer

OXFORD - William Beitzel was an educator in Ohio for nearly 50 years.

During his career, he taught at a two-room school in Stark County, served as supervisor of special education for the Dayton City Schools and taught at both Miami University and the University of Dayton.

In 1965 he was appointed to the Ohio Department of Education Review Committee.

Mr. Beitzel died Aug. 20 at McCullough-Hyde Memorial Hospital in Oxford. He was 87.

He was 20 when he began teaching in Stark County in 1937. He received both a bachelor's and a master's degree from Kent State University and did additional graduate work at Ohio State University.

In 1952, Mr. Beitzel became a psychologist in the Ohio Department of Education's special-education division. Three years later, he was appointed the first supervisor of special education for the Dayton City Schools. While there, he created a work-school program for 11th- and 12th-grade educable mentally retarded students that served as the statewide model for programs funded by the Ohio Department of Education.

Mr. Beitzel joined the faculty of Miami in 1964, teaching special education and supervising student teachers until 1971.

He was an assistant professor of special education at the University of Dayton from 1973 until 1983.

In 1962 he was elected president of the Ohio Federation Council for Exceptional Children. As a member of the State Department of Education Review Committee, he made recommendations that affected deaf and blind children around the state.

Survivors include his wife, Ethel; a son, William F. Beitzel of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada; a daughter, Karen Ross of Liberty, Ind.; a brother, Raymond Beitzel of Vandalia, Ohio; two grandsons; and two great-grandchildren.

Services have been held.

Memorials: William Beitzel Scholarship Fund, University of Dayton, 300 College Park Drive, Dayton, OH 45469.